The present invention relates to a pickup and feed unit for stacks of blanks.
In particular, the present invention relates to a unit which may be used to advantage for successively picking up stacks of blanks off a supporting surface--normally defined by a pallet on which the stacks are placed next to one another, and arranged and oriented in known orderly manner--and feeding the stacks, with the same given orientation, to a receiving member at an unloading station.
Known pickup and feed devices for stacks of blanks comprise a powered pickup head for positively engaging the stack, and which is normally guided along three perpendicular axes: two horizontal axes parallel to the stack supporting surface; and one vertical axis perpendicular to the supporting surface.
Though satisfactory in applications in which the stacks are all equioriented in relation to the supporting surface and as required at the unloading station, a major drawback of known devices of the aforementioned type is that they are unsuitable for applications in which, due to the shape of the blanks, and for best exploiting the space available on the supporting surface, the stacks are oriented differently, in relation to one another, about the respective axes perpendicular to the supporting surface.